KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Anibal Sanchez can do no wrong against the Kansas City Royals.

Sanchez allowed just one run in seven innings of work Friday night and led the Detroit Tigers to a 2-1 victory over the Royals.

The Tigers are 5-0 in games played in Kauffman Stadium this season and now lead the Royals by 6 1/2 games in the Central Division race.

Anibal Sanchez

Sanchez has not allowed more than one run in any of his seven career starts against the Royals. He entered the game with a 1.04 ERA in six starts against the Royals and actually saw that rise -- to 1.07 -- in this one. Sanchez has allowed one run in six starts against the Royals and zero in the other.

The Tigers took a 2-1 lead in the third inning on an unearned run thanks in part to a throwing error on Royals starter Danny Duffy. Shortstop Eugenio Suarez made a nice defensive play in the seventh inning to preserve that 2-1 win.

The Royals appeared to be in great shape to tie the game in the eighth. Nori Aoki led off with a single against Joba Chamberlain, then took off for second base on a pitch to Lorenzo Cain. The throw from Bryan Holaday ended up in center field and Aoki ended up on third. But home plate umpire Chad Fairchild called Cain out for batter's interference and, because that call makes the play dead, sent Aoki back to first.

Instead of having a runner on third and no outs, the Royals had a runner on first and one out. Chamberlain surrendered a single to the next batter but got out of the inning with the lead intact.

Joe Nathan had a rough go of it in the ninth but hung on to earn his 19th save.

Tigers' highlights-- The Tigers took a 1-0 lead just four pitches into the game. Austin Jackson hit the second pitch he saw from Duffy for a double to the wall in center, then scored two pitches later on a single by Ian Kinsler.

-- The Tigers scored an unearned run to break a 1-1 tie in the third inning. With Jackson on first and Rajai Davis on second, Duffy threw the ball into center trying to pick off Davis. That allowed both runners to move up a base. Davis then trotted home on a sacrifice fly by Miguel Cabrera to make it 2-1.

-- The Royals had a runner on third base with one out in the seventh inning and the Tigers were playing with the infield in when Jarrod Dyson hit a sharply struck ball that skipped off the grass toward shortstop. Eugenio Suarez made a nifty play to scoop the ball up to save a run, then threw to first for the second out of the inning. Sanchez escaped the inning unscathed as the Tigers carried a 2-1 lead to the eighth.

-- Jackson had two singles, a double an a run scored for the Tigers.

Tigers' lowlights-- After the Tigers rallied for a single run in the first, Duffy struck out Cabrera, J.D. Martinez and Torii Hunter in order to get out of the inning. Martinez struck out four times in four at-bats.

-- The Royals tied it at 1-1 in the bottom of the first on a single by Salvador Perez that scored Eric Hosmer, who reached on a two-out double.

-- The Tigers put runners on second and third with one out in the seventh inning but could not add any insurance runs. Castellanos was out at home on a fielder's choice grounder to third by Davis. Jackson, who had hits in his first three at-bats, then struck out to end the inning.

Game notes-- Royals pitchers hit consecutive batters to start the seventh inning and have hit four Tigers with pitches in this series. Jeremy Guthrie hit two Tigers with pitches Thursday. Duffy hit Nick Castellanos with a pitch to start the seventh and was replaced by Kelvin Herrera, who promptly hit Eugenio Suarez with a pitch.